Misguided
by eatsleep-repeat
Summary: What if you were given the chance to change your worst nightmare? Basically a bit of a mind bender. George thinks he's found a way to bring Fred back. Pairings to be announced! There will definitely be some George action though, don't you worry.


"Ginny go check on your brother, see if he's ready to come down for breakfast yet," Mrs. Weasley whispered to her youngest child and only daughter. George had been cooped up in his room for weeks now, only sparingly taking the time to come downstairs to say hello. The rare visits, even then, were so short it was like he wasn't there at all.

"Mum, he's just going to say the same thing he has been the past three weeks…" Ginny grumbled back. As much as she loved her brother, she thought maybe he just needed space. Everyone had been dealing with the grief of losing loved ones, including her who had also lost the same brother, Fred, in the final battle. Maybe what George needed was space, just the same way she needed love and attention to help with her grief. Everyone mourned differently. But no matter how many times she'd tried to explain this to her Mother, she just wouldn't give in.

"I don't care Ginny. Try your best, he responds more to you than anyone else," her Mother's eyes already had Ginny locked in and when the older Weasley threw in a hopeless, "Please," it was just impossible to refuse.

"Alright, be right back then," the young redhead sighed and jogged slowly up the winding steps to George's room. As she got closer, she slowed to almost a tip toe and took a shallow breath. She wondered if George was growing as frustrated and exhausted with her attempts to get him to join meals as she was. It was just pure ritual now, and she'd learned not to get her hopes up.

She quickly tried to think of a different strategy, some new way to convince him to at least have breakfast with the family when the door pulled open quickly and there was George, showered, clothed with an odd but bright smile on his face. He looked as if he was a new man, born just yesterday into the body he was wearing so proudly.

"Good morning, little sister of mine!" He spoke merrily, leaning down to envelop her in a rather tight hug. Unsure of how to react, Ginny fumbled over a few nonsense words and just stared at him. Who was this wonky ginger and what did he do with George? It was as if nothing had ever happened to Fred, as if he'd be waiting at the table for the both of them once they reached the kitchen.

It was then a terrible idea struck her. What if George was so deep in his depression, so lost in the mourning of his twin brother that somehow he was under the impression that nothing had happened? She'd heard about odd situations where people are just so helpless that they make things up, see and hear what they want to hear. In short, they go crazy. Biting her lip, Ginny couldn't stand to see his heart break again. To tell him that Fred was gone. Their brother was gone. Her eyes immediately began to water and she shook her head, George raising an eyebrow and looking at her curiously.

"Oh, George," she breathed morosely, shaking her head a bit more. She had to tell him, because she couldn't bear to see him lose himself in front of the entire family when he found out that their brother really was dead, and it wasn't all just a nasty dream.

"George, he's gone. He's not here. I'm so sorry, I wish he was too but it's real and he's not coming back."

For a moment, George didn't say anything. Instead he stared at his sister. Grief passed by his eyes but it didn't last. In fact, it flashed so quickly that Ginny wasn't sure it had even been there at all. She coughed and stepped back, "George? Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

George nodded, and then laughed. Ginny gasped at the noise, unfamiliar with the sound as it still managed to make her heart pound. It'd been far too long since she'd heard it. George pulled his sister into a hug and chuckled, "You're as right as you are wrong, Ginny."

Ginny stepped back, wiping from her face the few tears that had managed to escape. She shrugged her shoulders, "That makes absolutely no sense…"

George nodded, "I know. Don't worry though; it doesn't need to make sense. You see, Fred is gone… for now. Consider it a vacation. I know how to get him back."

Wide eyed, Ginny felt her chin drop and her thought process come to a halt. George just smiled from ear to ear, "I have a plan."

Ginny felt her eyes begin to water again but this time she did nothing to wipe away the falling tears, "George. That is impossible. It's impossible. There is no magic that can bring back the dead."

"No wand magic, no. No potion magic. No transfigurative magic. And before you ask, no, it's not dark magic either. Fred would look terrible coming back with no nose and snake eyes, " he laughed at the thought. As unfunny as the final battle had been, and anything to do with Lord Voldemort for that matter, there had been plenty of pictures Fred and George both drew that compared their not so physical likeness to the dark wizard. As a joke, obviously. There were just some things that no one but them understood.

'But.. But I just said that…" It made no sense to her. Clearly he was crazy. Sick with the loss of his twin brother. "Did Fred take half of your brain and logic with you when he left?"

George narrowed his eyes and sighed, "It sounds crazy, I know," he felt his body tremble slightly. His sister's disbelief in him was unnerving but he had to believe. He had to find a way to make it real.

Looking around the hallway to make sure no one was near, he pulled Ginny into his room and shut the door behind them. No one but George had been in there for weeks, and it definitely looked like it. Old plates of food were tossed around carelessly, as well as clothing and pictures. Despite the appearance of the room ,the one thing that stood out most to Ginny was the fact that although Fred's side of the room remained practically untouched, the bed looked as if it had just recently been slept in. Ginny figured that could mean one of two things. Either George had found comfort in sleeping in his brother's bed, or Fred had been the last one in it and George didn't have the heart to make it. She didn't blame him, she wouldn't have made the bed either.

"I was doing some research and I thought of a way to bring him back. It'd be pretty dangerous to the future but who cares? Why not alter a few things, it's not like the present could get much worse than it is now. I'd risk anything to have him back, wouldn't you?"

Ginny bit her lip. She couldn't lie, she would do anything. Fred was her flesh and blood, but still, the laws of magic were what they were for a reason. Furrowing her eyebrows, she leaned closer to her brother, hoping that his "plan" wasn't as crazy as he was making it sound.

"I don't know George… what are you planning on doing?"

This excited George, her taking an interest. Holding her hand, he pulled her over to his bed and made her sit down. Crossing her legs, she took a deep breath in order to prepare herself for what was coming. George had made his way over to the closet where he was fumbling to pull out an easel type display board.

"Need any help?" she offered but he managed it well enough by himself. When he was finally ready, she realized he must have had this planned for a while, because he had an entire presentation laid out for her.

"This is just a rough draft of the idea but I figured I should show it to everyone before I go ahead with it, just to get some information that might help. Hell, even some encouragement would be nice." He said this quite pointedly to her and she felt somewhat bad for reacting the way she had initially.

"Alright, but George…"

"Nope! No ifs, ands, nothing. Especially buts, okay? Just hear it, and tell me what you think."

She nodded.

He cleared his throat and took a breath before beginning.

"The other night I was lying in bed wondering what life would be like if Fred was still here. What we'd be doing, what things we'd be inventing together, what pranks we'd be playing on everyone just to lighten the mood. Then I thought about how different life would be if everyone who had died unjustly was still alive. Harry's parents, Lupin, Tonks… "

He could tell this was hard for Ginny to hear so he apologized and quickly moved on to the main points. There was no need for minor details anyhow.

" I had considered time travel a few weeks ago but getting hold of a time turner isn't exactly an easy thing to do, and as much as I'd like to break into the ministry of magic and steal one… I wouldn't want to spend the next three years in Azkaban while Fred was back and ready for action. That'd just defeat the purpose."

This picture on the display board was of a very sullen and sad faced George behind bars, and Fred in what looked like a tourist Hawaiian beach shirt lying out on some sandy beaches. Ginny fought the urge to smile.

George handed Ginny a small, leather bound book. It had no title on the worn-brown cover but when she opened to the first page, she read the name quietly, the words playing off her tongue in a gentle whisper.

"The Time, the Timeless and the Trinity."

George flipped the page on his easel display and the next hand drawn image was of the book and a light bulb above it, which blinked magically on an off.

"I found this the other day in a muggle bookstore in London. It's by Margarita Bellstold. There's no record of her ever living a regular wizard life, no record of her birth, no transcript from Hogwarts or any nearby Wizarding school. But there are plenty of biographies and articles about weird things happening throughout her entire life, but they all happen to be written by muggles. I guess she was a really famous writer or something."

"How can you be sure she's actually a witch then? I mean, it was in a muggle bookstore after all."

"I know but I'm positive. I read 5 of the biographies written about her and every 'unusual' thing that happened during her life I can connect to magic and wizards. There's just no denying it once you read them for yourself."

"Okay…" she said doubtful but ready to hear the rest of his idea. He took the book from her and opened to a chapter entitled 'The Soul Mate.'

The picture under the title was of a man and a woman from their waist up. It was blurry but from what Ginny could tell from the angle the two figures were smiling. It was a picture very hard to decipher, especially since the sketching was so messy and done in all black and white. Squinting her eyes, she leaned in closer to get a better look. There seemed to be a darker figure in the shadows of the two figures hair but George shifted and she lost her focus.

"Remember all that rubbish Dumbledore used to go on about Love? How it's a magic far deeper than anything we know of. How we have yet to explore and discover the depth of what true love really is and what it can do?"

"It's not rubbish George, how else would Harry have…"

George held up a hand, cutting her off, "I know it's not rubbish. That's why this plan is going to work. See, everyone, every single person in this world has a Soul Mate. It says in this book that back when the world was new, and there were only 6 people and they were all paired. Four men and four women, matched perfectly with each other. Each couple was split up and sent to one of the three parts of the world."

"George, there are more than three places in the world…"

"There wasn't when it was new. There was the east side, where we would now know there to be Asia, Russia and Australia, the west side where we see it as North America, Greenland, even the North Pole. And then there was the south part, which was North America – you know, Brazil, Antarctica and stuff. In the book they were called The Rise, The Wind and The Sea but whatever, that doesn't matter."

George flipped to the next page on his display and a picture of the world took place of the previous. Each major continent had been circled and titled so they formed three very large groups, just as he had explained.

"Uh, George, you realize this makes no sense? 6 people in the world, spread out over ALL of that land and yet somehow, we managed to have BILLIONS of people here now?"

George shrugged, "Argue it all you want but it's not like you were around to tell me how things really managed to get started."

Sighing, Ginny admitted defeat and let him go on.

"Anyway," he continued, "every pair was split and it was their life meaning to simply find each other. They had oceans and mountains and deserts in their way as obstacles to overcome but it would be worth it in the end once they found each other. Once they found their Soul Mate."

"That's a bit horrible."

"Well yeah, and you can see how things would go wrong. Sometimes they would die, they'd get lonely and only have the person they were traveling with. .. And well, when a person gets lonely you end up running to the person closest to you. It's just human nature. Needless to say, lives were lost and babies were born. As the world grew more populated, and the 6 original people died, life expanded. Ideas were maid, myths and legends were created to explain existence and so on. It's really no different from the muggle story of Adam and Eve or even Jesus Christ. Everyone creates their own stories and ideas, this is just another one."

" So, since we are decedents from these six beings, we are all connected to one other person. One other person that came from our "original" Soul Mate."

"But then couldn't it be anyone?" Ginny asked confused, " Anyone that was a descendant from our 'Original Soul Mate' or whatever? I mean, what if my Original being was in the East and their match was from the West. Wouldn't I be soul mates with ANY person who was a descendant from the West? I mean there's probably MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of people who are descendant from my match." This wasn't making any sense to her. The idea of it sounded nice, but considering how many people, muggles and wizards alike that walked the earth that very moment… it just didn't seem likely that whatever George had planned was going to work out very well.

"Yeah, I had thought of that too. I mean, just because you and I are brother and sister doesn't mean we have the same descendant match. I was doubtful too but it explains how it works. We don't have the same match just the same way we don't have the same exact fingerprints. Fred and I were identical twins, but there was still that _something_ that made us stand apart. See, every single person on this planet is individual and unique. Everyone has got _something_ in them that even if they never realize what it is, is different than anyone else ever born, anyone else that ever will be born. "

Fred paced now, his display easel forgotten. His brain was moving a hundred miles a minute. The more he talked about it, the more he was sure this plan was going to work. Moving towards Ginny, he dropped to his knees in front of her and smiled, "What that _something_ is, our Soul Mate has that other _something_ that fits. It's what makes us whole. It's what true love is made of. They say love can overpower anything. Absolutely anything. Hell, it even saved Harry from what's supposed to be an unbeatable curse. If it can stop death, why can't it change what's already happened? If it can stop death, why can't it bring life?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying if I find Fred's Soul Mate, maybe I can bring him back to life."

"Fred… Fred isn't even here. Say you did find his soul mate, which is highly unlikely considering the zillions of people you'd have to search through, how exactly do you manage to have them meet?"

George smiled wickedly, "Well, I guess maybe a break in at the ministry wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. It's not like I wouldn't return it once I was finished."

"So you're going to find Fred's Soul Mate, go back in time, introduce them, and in doing so …prevent our brother's death and change the entire future?"

"Something like that."

"This is crazy."

"And?"

"And? It's insane. It's impossible."

"And that's why, little sister of mine, it is going to work."

"You'll change the future. You'll – "

George placed his hands on his sister's knees and she held his hands gently, "I'll have my twin brother back, Ginny."

And with that, she could not argue.


End file.
